When did Whirlpool start go to bad?

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Reply #14

"The WCI Frigidaire machines were terrible and didn’t turn anything over, and they had reliability problems also. They also lacked tub brakes. The WCI Frigidaire washers just didn’t clean your clothes and didn’t last very long".

Those are some bold claims there you're making.Yes WCI is much maligned and rightfully so, BUT their agitators could turn over loads and clean them.

I'm thinking of the 5 vain straight vane used in WCI Frigidaire machines. The DAA could also turn loads over.

Everything else I would agree with. Cheaply built and they rusted out easily and most just didn't last.
 
The GE model Ts or WCI Frigidaire just didn’t clean as well as a Speed Queen, older Maytag, or a Whirlpool direct drive.

Both the WCI Frigidaire and Model T GE were bad machines, and when they failed they had to get scraped. Frigidaire also made a terrible high efficiency system with the agitub design. Looked like Frigidaire’s answer to the GE HydroWave (which was a terrible machine of it itself), but they used a motor used on a TR Speed Queen washer.

The tubs were plastic, but they used bottom suspension.
 
Well to me, a cheapening of could have happened during the time plastic handles replaced the metal ones, and the machines were no longer offered with independent speed selections or even separate wash and rinse temperatures...

 

 

 

-- Dave

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Dave, WP offered speed selection independent of the timer cycles only on top-of-line Imperial Mark 12/18 models and a few Imperial non-Marks as I recall during the classic belt-drive era.  Direct-drive models initially had speed programmed into the timer.
 
This has been discussed over the years, but personally I think Whirlpool began to decline once they discontinued the belt drive washers. While the direct drives have proved themselves over the years, still don’t wash or rinse all that well compared to the belt drives which had a longer agitator stroke which flexes the fibers more along with spray rinses to help rinse things away a bit better.
 
as a kid,thought Whirlpool was on it's way down when they started "welded" plastic pump covers about 1978 instead of the earlier clip on ones...:) About the same time,WP went with all Emerson motors vs GE/Emerson mix.
 

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